Presentation
The Pech Merle cave is situated close to the village of de Cabrerets, Lot county, France.
Why
is it called "Pech Merle" ?
In the lower third of France is a southern Latin culture called langue
d'oc or occitan.
Pech is the French writing of the occitan word puèg which means : a hill.
We pronounce as in "fresh". It appears in the name of many localities,
written pech, puech, pioch, pey, and you can read it on the signs of the
regionals roads. In old French, the good word is puy. For Merle, we know
nothing. It could be an ancient Gaelic word or from an older language,
which could mean : hill, high area.
Within
ten kilometres around Pech Merle can be found a dozen
other caves with wall paintings. They
are not open to the public.
The upper network of the cave of Pech Merle has no signs of prehistoric use and has been known since the turn of the century.
The
prehistoric galleries, in the lower network, were discovered in 1922 by
André David and
Henri Dutertre, when they were 16
and 15 years old respectively. The
examination of the paintings and engravings was immediately begun by
Father
Amédée Lemozi, the priest of Cabrerets.
The cave has been
open to the public since 1926. It is classed as a 'historic monument' and
is the property of the commune of Cabrerets which is
responsible for its management.
The Pech Merle cave is a very large one. It is more than two kilometres
long. The visitors can see about the third part of the galleries, seven
large halls open the way to discover the exuberant and fabulous riches of
subterranean sceneries.
"An art gallery in a palace of nature." (René Teyssédou)
In
order to verify that the organisation of the tours and the number of
visitors are adequate as far as the safety of rock art is concerned the
CNRS subterranean laboratory at Moulis in the Ariège region associated
with the Géologie-Environnement-Conseil private office studies the
underground environment of the Pech Merle cave.
Do you want to visit the cave ?
You can also
download
our brochure in PDF format
(1.2 MB)
